Poignant, heartfelt and wise, Waiting for Stalin to Die offers tender portraits of Lithuanian refugees conflicted by their longing for both safety in exile and a return to their homeland. Irene Guilford’s writing brings clarity and compassion to memorable characters who transcend their historical moment and speak to our common humanity. A must-read.

In an acute portrayal of family life, life in boarding houses, in the Lithuanian community and the parish, Guilford uses touching imagery (“His eyes held the vastness of the ocean he had just crossed.”), as well as a sophistication of language and an intricacy of theme that takes the reader beyond any ordinary immigrant story. We see clearly how the newcomers share the gnawing pain of longing, the guilt of leaving lives and loves behind, how they “clung together in the fierce closeness of a people far from home”, thinking their life here was temporary.

Waiting for Stalin to Die

is a highly recommended read. It is incredibly moving and filled with rich and wonderful people with stories that need to be heard and understood.

Waiting for Stalin to Die by Irene Guilford is a touching and thoughtful novel about post-war immigrants from Lithuania living and settling in Toronto from 1949 to 1953. Irene Guilford is a Canadian author whose work has been shortlisted for both the CBC Literary Competition and the Event Creative Non-Fiction Contest. She is also the author of The Embrace, another novel concerning the Lithuanian experience of exile and immigration. Waiting for Stalin to Die is Guilford’s second fiction novel.

This exquisite novel captures the complex and touching successes and failures of a generation of postwar immigrants learning to leave the past behind and start new lives. They meet kindness and cruelty, good luck and bad, and adapt as best they can. The lovely, restrained prose reminded me at moments of Colm Toibin, and Samantha Harvey. This is a novel that contains a rare combination of intelligence and heart. I couldn’t put it down.